Telecommunications networks have seen very rapid advances in their numbers of users, and the types of services available. In particular, the combination of data-orientated mobile telecommunications networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.) and feature rich smart phones and tablet devices has enabled users to consume a greater variety of services. These increases in the number of users and the types of services available have increased the need for improved charging systems.
Generally, a charging system (such as a 3GPP Online Charging System (OCS)) may indicate the status of a balance state to a policy management system (such as a 3GPP Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)). For example, when a subscriber goes from a state of “IN CREDIT” to a state of “OUT OF CREDIT”, the OCS may inform the PCRF so that the PCRF may make a new policy decision. This could be achieved using the Diameter based Sy interface in the 3GPP Policy and Charging Control (PCC) architecture, but could also be accomplished using any other interface or protocol.
At certain times, many of these updates may need to be sent at the same time. This may occur at a common time when many balance state changes occur—for example at the end of a monthly billing cycle, or at midnight when a daily balance is reset. This introduces significant signaling load on the charging and policy management systems, and potentially between the policy management systems and other nodes in the network. As such, improved policy and charging systems that reduce this signaling traffic will be beneficial to telecommunication service providers and consumers of services provided by telecommunication networks.